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The people of falsehood constantly attempt to make the deaths of righ-teous men and their slayings by the enemies of Islam – the mushrikin and the apostates – into a sign foretelling the breaking of the muwahiddin. But those fools do not realize that Allah has ordained for each soul its set term before He created the heavens and the earth. Allah said, “And each nation has its set term. They can neither delay it for an hour nor advance it” (Al-A’raf 34). In this de-cree, all people are equal, including prophets and righteous people as well as disbelievers and tyrants.

Those fools do not realize that Allah preserves His religion however He wills, and this religion will remain es-tablished and will not be damaged by

the death of any person. If it would have been damaged by anything, it would have been by the death of the Prophet and those of his no-ble Companions. But the religion remained long after their departure, as Allah established its foothold and spread it on the earth. He preserved it and employed His righteous slaves in its service. “He loves them and they love Him; humble to the believers and mighty against the disbelievers, they wage jihad for His cause and do not fear the blame of any blamer” (Al-Maidah 54).

As for the learned who revere Allah as He should be revered, worshiping Him as He should be worshiped, when one of the righteous from among them die, they remind their

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brothers of what Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said to his companions, “Whoever worshiped Muhammad, then verily Muhammad has died. And whoever worshiped Allah, then verily Allah is alive and does not die” (Reported by al-Bukhari from ‘Aishah and Ibn ‘Abbas).

As for the mujahidin in Allah’s cause – and they are the elite of His creation, those of His slaves whom He has chosen to become martyrs and whom He subjects to favorable tests – then the death of their leaders and commanders who stormed ahead of them into battle, running head first into hardships for their religion, only increases their firmness and determination in fighting the enemies of Allah. The words of the mujahidin are like those of Anas Ibn an-Nadhr to the Companions of Allah’s Messenger , when he found them, on the Day of Uhud, encumbered by hearing the mushrikin claim-ing to have killed the Messenger of Allah . He said, “Why do you sit?” They said, “Allah’s Messenger has been killed!” He said, “So what will you do in this life after him? Stand and die upon that for which Allah’s Messenger has died!” Then he faced the enemy and fought until he was killed (Sirat Ibn Hisham).

This is the way of the muwahhidin in every time and place. When-ever a generation of them passes, another generation follows, hold-ing the banner of tawhid overhead while plunging anew into the battle for Islam, which continues to be waged against shirk and its people. The slogan of each of them is, “Stand and die upon that for which your brothers in faith before you have died.”

The killing of our persevering brothers who preceded us, like Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-‘Adnani will not harm Islam at all, as it is preserved by Allah , just as it will never harm our brothers. We consider them to be those who emerged as fighters for Allah’s cause, seeking shahadah without turning back. Allah said about them, “And do not consider those who were killed for Allah’s cause as dead – rather, they are alive. They are provided for with their Lord, re-joicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty, being cheerful of those who have yet to join them, that they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve; cheerful of a blessing and grace from Allah

and that Allah will not let the reward of the believers be lost” (Al ‘Imran 169-171).

By Allah’s permission, their slaying will not harm the Islamic State as long as it proceeds upon Tawhid and the Sunnah. Men shall continue to be employed by Allah to frus-trate the kuffar, thereby healing the hearts of a believing people, just as Allah employed those who established its foundations and raised its bases, until it reached, by Allah’s grace, what it has reached today of dignity and empowerment.

When the mushrikin and murtaddin rejoiced over the killing of Shaykh Abu Mus’ab az-Zarqawi , the thought did not enter their minds that Allah would employ from the soldiers and brothers of the Shaykh those who would rub their noses into the ground and infuriate their hearts, just as He employed Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-‘Ad-nani .

Today, they rejoice over the killing of Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-‘Adnani . However, they shall shed many tears when Allah places over them – by His permission – one of the many soldiers and brothers of Abu Muhammad who will inflict them with a far worse torment. “And surely Allah will support those who support Him. Truly, Al-lah is Strong and Mighty” (Al-Hajj 40).

T h e C r u s a d e r s ’ r e j o i c i n g o v e r S h a y k h a z - Z a r q a -w i ’ s d e a t h w a s s h o r t - l i v e d

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Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His help. Whomsoever Allah guides there is none to misguide, and whomsoever Allah leaves to stray there is none to guide. I testify that there is no god except Allah alone, who has no partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger . As for what follows:

The purpose of this series is to clarify the reality of Islam and the necessity of the Jama’ah. We ask Allah to grant both us and you understanding of Islam and to keep us firm in the Jama’ah of the Muslims.

Allah said, “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have ap-proved Islam as the religion for you” (Al-Maidah 3). He also said, “Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam” (Al ‘Imran 19). He also said, “And whoever desires other than Islam as a religion - never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers” (Al ‘Imran 85).

Thus, the religion which Allah is pleased with for the people and other than which He does not accept from them is Islam. Its reality, both linguistically and religiously, is: salamah, meaning ikhlas, and istislam to Allah, mean-ing submission to Him.

Abul-‘Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah said, “Islam is to submit to Allah alone, and the term Islam encompasses istislam (submission) as well as having ikhlas (sincerity) in this is-tislam to Allah … So whoever does not submit to Him is not a Muslim, and whoever submits to other than Him the same as he submits to Him is not a Muslim, and whoever submits to Him alone is a Muslim, as in the Quran, ‘Yes [on the contrary], whoever submits his face in Islam to Allah while being a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve’ (Al-Baqarah 112). He also said, ‘And who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Al-lah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Ibrahim, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Ibrahim as an intimate friend’ (An-Nisa 125)” (An-Nubuwwat).

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He also said, “The Islam which is the religion of Allah and for which He revealed His books and sent His mes-sengers … is that the slave surrenders to Allah, the Lord of the creation, submitting (istislam) to Him alone without making any partners for Him, and becoming exclusively for Him (salamah) such that he takes Him as his deity without taking other than Him as a deity, as is clarified by the best of speech and the main pillar of Islam, the testi-mony of ‘la ilaha illallah.’ And it has two opposites: kibr [haughtiness] and shirk. For this reason, it was reported that Nuh ordered his sons with ‘la ilaha illallah’ and ‘subhanallah,’ and forbade them from arrogance and shirk (Reported by Ahmad from ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr) … This is because the one who is too haughty to worship Allah does not worship Him and therefore does not submit to Him, and the one who worships Him and also worships other than Him is making partners for Him and he is therefore not exclusively for Him. Rather, he has shirk to-wards Him. And the word ‘Islam’ comprises both istislam and salamah, meaning ikhlas” (Al-Fatawa), “and both the mustakbir [the haughty person who does not worship Al-lah] and the mushrik are not Muslims” (An-Nubuwwat).

Thus, a person cannot be a Muslim except by adher-ing to Islam in both of these aspects, so whoever doesn’t submit to Allah – such as one who abandons all actions or forcefully resists some of the manifest, mutawatir rul-ings – is nothing but a kafir, and whoever isn’t exclusively for Allah – such as one who worships the prophets and the righteous, whether blindly following others or hav-ing misunderstandings – is nothing but a mushrik, even if he prays, fasts, and claims that he is a Muslim. These realities are manifested by the testimony of “la ilaha illal-lah.” Abul-‘Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The ‘ilah’ is the one who is worshiped and obeyed” deserving so (Taysir al-‘Aziz al-Hamid), thus there is none deserving worship or obedience except Allah. This statement encompasses the meanings of both salamah and istislam, and it is the da’wah of all the prophets and messengers to their peoples and nations.

Abul-‘Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The word ‘Is-lam’…has two meanings. The first is the common religion which He sent all the prophets with – to worship Allah alone, not making any partners for Him – as the texts of the Book and the Sunnah indicate that their religion was the same. The second meaning is that which Muhammad was specified with … And it (i.e. Islam) has two levels. The first level is those words and deeds manifested exter-nally, and they are the five pillars. The second level is that this manifestation conforms with one’s interior” (Al-Fa-tawa).

These five pillars, which represent the reality of Islam in speech and action, both outward and inward, were clari-fied by Allah’s messenger through his statement, “Islam has been built upon five matters: Testifying that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His messen-ger, establishing the prayer, giving the zakah, performing hajj to the sacred house, and fasting Ramadan” (Report-

ed by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar). Another narration states, “Islam has been built upon five matters: Making tawhid of Allah…” (Reported by Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar). Another narration states, “Islam has been build upon five matters: Worshiping Allah and disbeliev-ing in anything [worshiped] besides Him…” (Reported by Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar). Thus, the Islam with which the Shari’ah of Muhammad was specified was not an Islam without salamah and istislam to Allah. Rather, the five pillars were legislated so that the individual could be-come exclusively for Allah and submit to Him by adhering to tawhid, following the Messenger , and performing the pillars. Ishaq Ibn Rahawayh said, “The Murjiah went to extremes to the extent that one of their statements became, ‘Whoever abandons the prayer, the fast of Ra-madan, the zakah, the hajj, and abandons all other ob-ligations, without denying their obligatory status, we do not make takfir of him and his matter is deferred to Allah thereafter since he acknowledges [the obligatory status of these deeds].’ These are the Murjiah concerning whom there is no doubt” (Masail Harb al-Kirmani).

Furthermore, Allah has clarified the relationship be-tween salamah and istislam in many ayat in His book, in-cluding His command to fight the mushrikin. He said, “But if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, then they are your brothers in religion; and We detail the verses for a people who know” (At-Tawbah 11). After reciting this ayah, al-Fudayl Ibn ‘Iyad said, “Allah has made repentance from shirk be both through speech and action, via the establishing of prayer and the offering of zakah. The people of Ray [those who prefer their opinions to many ahadith of the Prophet ] said, ‘Neither the prayer nor the zakah nor any of the obligatory deeds are from iman,’ thereby fabricating a lie against Allah and oppos-ing His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet . If it were really as they claim, Abu Bakr would not have fought the apostates!” (As-Sunnah – ‘Abdullah Ibn Ahmad).

The Sahabah had consensus that there is no Islam without submission, so they made takfir of the one who abandons the prayer due to laziness, as he is one who has completely abandoned action. They also made takfir of those who withheld the zakah, as they had resisted with force an obvious and clear-cut law of the Shari’ah. The extreme Murjiah opposed them in this (in that there is no Islam without submission), thus they were unaware of the reality of the Islam Allah is pleased with as a religion for the people. Likewise, the Sahabah had consensus that there is no Islam without salamah, so they made takfir of the category of apostates who went back to worshiping idols – and they were idols that had been made in the image forms of the righteous – and they did not consider any of the following to be impediments for making takfir of the individuals: The peoples’ recent withdrawal from Jahiliyyah, the emergence of liars claiming prophethood, or the usurping of the Muslims’ lands by the apostates resisting zakah with force. The modern-day Jahmiyyah opposed them in this, going against the statement of the Messenger , “Whoever dies knowing ‘la ilaha illallah’

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will enter Jannah” (Reported by Muslim from ‘Uthman).

Thus, the building of Islam cannot be without these pillars, and whoever makes light of any one of these pil-lars, then the building could collapse on him at any mo-ment. If it collapses, he is to be killed in the Dunya by the sword before his torment in the Fire of the Hereafter. Allah’s Messenger said, “Whoever changes his religion, kill him” (Reported by al-Bukhari from Ibn ‘Abbas). The greatest of these pillars, however, is the first pillar, without which a person’s Islam can never be correct, and that is the testimony of tawhid, the testimony of “la ilaha illallah,” that there is none deserving worship or obedience except Allah, and it encompasses tawhid of worship, tawhid of lordship, and tawhid of names and attributes. Abul-‘Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah said, “‘La ilaha illallah’ affirms that He is singled out in ilahiyyah (godhood), and ilahiyyah encom-passes the excellence of His knowledge, His power, His mercy, and His wisdom. It includes the affirmation of His benevolence towards His slaves. This is because the ilah (god) is the maluh, and the maluh is the one who is de-serving of being worshiped, and the fact that He is deserv-ing of worship is due to what He possesses of attributes which necessitate that He be the one who is loved utmost and submitted to fully” (Taysir al-‘Aziz al-Hamid).

The testimony of “la ilaha illallah” is the testimony of believing in Allah and disbelieving in taghut, to worship Allah alone and disbelieve in all others besides Him, and it is the millah of Ibrahim whom we were commanded to follow and who said to his people, “Indeed, we are inno-cent of you and whatever you worship besides Allah. We have disbelieved in you, and there has manifested between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone” (Al-Mumtahanah 4).

Imam Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhab said, “[Islam] is to submit to Allah with tawhid and obedience, and to disavow shirk and its people” (Thalathatul-Usul). Thus, it is salamah and istislam.

An individual cannot be a Muslim without worship-ing Allah alone and disbelieving in all others worshiped besides him, as clarified by the hadith of the five pillars: “Islam has been built upon five matters: Worshiping Al-lah and disbelieving in anything [worshiped] besides Him” (Reported by Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar). So there is no Islam without worship of Allah (istislam) and there is no Islam without disbelieving in the taghut (salamah). An individual is not saved from the filth and impurity of shirk and its people as long as he does not disbelieve in the tawaghit of his era, their shirk, and those who com-mit this shirk, such as the apostate partisans of democ-racy, nationalism, and manmade laws. Included among them are the candidates and voters in the elections and referendums from the so-called “Islamic” parties, as well as those who refer to the courts of manmade laws for judg-ment under the pretext of maslahah and necessity. Also included are the soldiers and supporters of taghut such as their military recruits and “scholars.” Also included is the

“Murtadd Brotherhood” group and its parties, factions, and sister organizations, which have denied tawhid, the Shari’ah, wala and bara, and jihad, and have resisted ad-hering to these tenets, mocked them, waged war against them, and supported the Crusaders and the tawaghit in waging war against them. Rather, it is obligatory on the Muslim to manifest his disbelief in all of these apostates as much as he is able to, with his pen and tongue, and his sword and spear, thereby following the two khalils of Allah (Muhammad and Ibrahim ), may the best of blessings and peace be upon them both, and it is Allah’s help that is sought, reliance is upon Him, and there is no power or might except by Allah.

Part 2

In the last part of this series we clarified that the reality of Islam linguistically and religiously is salamah, meaning ikhlas, and istislam, meaning submission to Allah.

And from that which is compulsory on an individual to know is that Allah has obligated upon the people – both as groups and individuals – salamah and istislam. So He made it obligatory upon them to rule by His law alone, seek His judgment alone, take to account anyone who breaks His law, and fight anyone who resists any part of it, such that they fight all the people on account of this religion over both of these meanings – salamah and istis-lam – and do not leave off fighting them for as long as they do not willingly adhere to the laws of Islam, unless they forcibly accept the jizyah and submit to the rule of Islam (if they are from those from whom jizyah may be taken).

T h e d e p o s e d E g y p t i a n t a g h u t , M o h a m e d M o r s i

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Allah said, “And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the mushrikin wherever you find them and cap-ture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful” (At-Tawbah 5). He also said, “But if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, then they are your brothers in religion; and We de-tail the verses for a people who know” (At-Tawbah 11). He also said, “Fight them until there is no fitnah and the religion is for Allah. But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the oppressors” (Al-Baqa-rah 193). He also said, “And fight them until there is no fitnah and the religion is completely for Allah. And if they cease - then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do” (Al-Anfal 39). He also said, “Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the cause of taghut. So fight against the allies of Shaytan. Indeed, the plot of Shaytan has ever been weak” (An-Nisa 76). He also said, “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlaw-ful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Book - [fight] until they give the ji-zyah willingly while they are humiliated” (At-Tawbah 29).

And the Prophet commanded to fight the people un-til they adhere to the manifest pillars of Islam. He said, “Indeed, the head of the matter is to testify that there is no god but Allah, alone and without partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger. The foundation of this matter is to establish the prayer and give the zakah, and its peak is jihad in the path of Allah. I have been com-manded to fight the people until they establish the prayer, give the zakah, and testify that there is no god but Allah, alone and without partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger. If they do so, they have found refuge and protected their blood and wealth, except by its right, and their reckoning is upon Allah” (Report by Ahmad from Mu’adh). He also said, “I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger, and they establish the prayer and give the zakah. If they do so, they have protected their blood and their wealth from me, except by its right, and their reckoning is upon Allah” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar).

Likewise, his khalifah, Shaykhul-Islam Abu Bakr as-Sid-diq gave a similar order, for Handhalah Ibn ‘Ali Ibn al-Asqa’ reported that Abu Bakr dispatched Khalid Ibn al-Walid and ordered him to fight the people over five matters, and that if anyone abandoned any one of the five, he should fight him over it just as he would fight over all five: To testify that there is no god but Allah and that Mu-hammad is His slave and messenger, establish the prayer, pay the zakah, fast Ramadan, and perform the hajj” (As-Sunnah – al-Khallal; Tarikh al-Islam – adh-Dhahabi).

And the obligation is that the Muslims fight the mushrikin under a single banner, not divided and split

into parties with neither a jama’ah nor an imam. “Indeed, Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a row as though they are a [single] structure joined firmly” (As-Saff 4). Fur-thermore, the single row and the consolidation of the re-ligion do not come about without wala and bara. Allah said, “The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those – Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise” (At-Tawbah 71). He also said, “And those who disbe-lieved are allies of one another. If you do not do so, there will be fitnah on earth and great corruption” (Al-Anfal 73). He also said, “And if it were not for Allah checking [some] people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted, but Allah is full of bounty to the creation” (Al-Baqarah 251). He also said, “O you who have be-lieved, whoever of you should revert from his religion - Allah will bring forth [in place of them] a people He will love and who will love Him [who are] humble toward the believers, mighty against the disbelievers; they wage jihad for the cause of Allah and do not fear the blame of a critic. That is the favor of Allah; He bestows it upon whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing” (Al-Maidah 54).

This jama’ah which has been obligated upon the Mus-lims is the Qurashi khilafah that Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman was ordered to adhere to, and it is built upon pillars just as Islam is built upon pillars. The Prophet said, “And I command you with five matters that Allah has command-ed me with: Listening, obeying, jihad, hijrah, and jama’ah, for indeed he who splits from the jama’ah so much as a hand span has removed the noose of Islam from his neck until he returns, and whoever calls by the call of Jahiliyyah is from the people of Hell.” A man said, “O Messenger of Allah, even if he prays and fasts?” He said, “Even if he prays and fasts. So call by the call of Allah who has named you Muslims, believers, and slaves of Allah” (Reported by at-Tirmidhi from al-Harith al-Ash’ari). Therefore, the Jama’ah of the Muslims which we have been ordered to cling to, adhere to, and bite onto with our molars, and without which the rule of Islam is not manifested in the land, is built upon five pillars after the pillars of Islam: Hijrah, listening, obeying, jama’ah, and jihad, and there is no listening, obeying, or jama’ah without bay’ah and an imam, there is no hijrah without iwa and nusrah (giving refuge and support), and there is no jihad without i’dad (preparation), ribat, and qital (fighting).

The rightly-guided khalifah, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab said, “Indeed, there is no Islam except with jama’ah, and there is no jama’ah except with imarah (leadership), and there is no imarah except with obedience” (Sunan ad-Darimi).

And due to the importance of the Jama’ah of the Mus-lims for the manifestation of the religion of Islam, the da’wah to its pillars immediately followed the da’wah to the pillars of Islam. The Prophet said, “Go forth and at-

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tack in the name of Allah, for the cause of Allah. Fight he who disbelieves in Allah. Attack and neither steal from the war booty, nor commit treachery, nor mutilate a corpse, nor kill an infant. When you meet your enemy from the mushrikin, call them to three matters and accept whichev-er of them they agree to and withhold from fighting them: Call them to Islam. If they agree, accept it from them and withhold from fighting them. Then call them to perform hijrah from their land to the land of the muhajirin, and inform them that if they do that then they will enjoy the same rights and have the same obligations as the muha-jirin. If they refuse to perform hijrah, then inform them that they will be like the Bedouins of the Muslims; they will be subject to the rule of Allah, which the believers are subject to, and they will have no share in the war booty and spoils unless they wage jihad with the Muslims” (Re-ported by Muslim from Buraydah). This was the ruling of hijrah to the city of Allah’s Messenger from a land whose people had embraced Islam, so how then of those who are content with residing among the mushrikin? Al-lah’s Messenger said, “The Muslims are not accountable for one who resides among the mushrikin in their lands” (Reported by at-Tabarani and al-Bayhaqi from Jarir Ibn ‘Abdillah).

Allah said, “Indeed, those who have believed and per-formed hijrah and fought with their wealth and lives in the cause of Allah and those who gave shelter and support - they are allies of one another. But those who believed and did not perform hijrah - for you there is no guardianship of them until they perform hijrah. And if they seek help of you for the religion, then you must help, except against a people between yourselves and whom is a treaty. And Allah is Seeing of what you do” (Al-Anfal 72). He also said, “But those who have believed and performed hijrah and fought in the cause of Allah and those who gave shel-ter and support - it is they who are the believers, truly. For them is forgiveness and noble provision. And those who believed after [the initial hijrah] and performed hijrah and

fought with you - they are of you” (Al-Anfal 74-75).

And due to the importance of the Jama’ah of the Mus-lims, the Prophet warned against leaving it. He said, “Whoever leaves obedience, splits from the Jama’ah and then dies, dies a death of jahiliyyah” (Reported by Muslim from Abu Hurayrah). He also said, “Whoever sees from his leader something he dislikes then let him be patient, for indeed he who splits from the Jama’ah so much as a hand span and then dies, then it is a death of jahiliyyah” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn ‘Abbas). He also said, “Whoever retracts his hand from obedience will meet Allah on the Day of Judgment with-out an argument [in his favor], and whoever dies without a bay’ah, dies a death of jahiliyyah” (Reported by Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar).

Rather, due to the importance of the Jama’ah of the Muslims, the Prophet made lawful the blood of the one who breaks its rank. He said, “There will be tribulations and tribulations. So whoever comes to divide the matter of this Ummah while it is united, then strike him – who-ever he may be – with the sword” (Reported by Muslim from ‘Arfajah). Another narration states, “Whoever comes to you wanting to break your strength or divide your unity while your matter is altogether under a single man, then kill him [i.e. the agitator].” He also said, “If bay’ah is given to two khalifahs, then kill the second of them” (Re-ported by Muslim from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri). He also said, “The blood of a Muslim individual bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and that I am the messenger of Allah is not permissible except in one of three cases: The adulterer, a life for a life, and one who abandons the religion, breaking off from the Jama’ah” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn Mas’ud).

And from the blessings of Allah upon the muwahhi-din is that He renewed for them this jama’ah – with no power or strength on their part – after it had been ab-sent for centuries. Prior to that, this neglected obligation was a duty upon every Muslim and each of them will be held accountable for not striving to renew it then. Thus, it is upon every muwahhid to thank his Lord through his words and deeds, by mentioning this blessing in both public and private gatherings – “And as for the blessing of your Lord, then mention [it]” (Ad-Duha 11) – and by safeguarding this blessing, defending it, fighting in order to preserve it, and adhering to its pillars – hijrah, listen-ing, obeying, jama’ah, and jihad – and the entailments for these pillars – iwa, nusrah, bay’ah, i’dad, and ribat – so that Allah may increase them of His bounty. Allah said, “And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, ‹If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe’” (Ibrahim 7).

O Allah, make the conquest of Constantinople and Rome be at our hands and make us from among your pa-tient and grateful slaves. Amin.

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In his conversation with the Islamic State’s Naba newsletter, the amir of the Central Office for Investigating Grievances clarified the reason behind the office’s es-tablishment, and the role it plays in elimi-nating the injustices that might afflict both the subjects and soldiers of the Islamic State. He likewise clarified the mechanism through which the office works to process the cases that reach it, eventually settling them by either removing injustice from those afflicted by it or verifying the absence of injustice in a case and informing the complainant thereof.

Question: Why was the Central Office for Investigating Grievances established?

Answer: All praise is due to Allah. May Allah’s blessings be upon His noble messen-ger and those who follow his guidance until the Day of Judgment. As for what follows:

Indeed, Allah ordered justice and made it among His lofty attributes. He said, “Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppres-sion. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded” (An-Nahl 90). He also said, “And the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice. None can alter His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing” (Al-An’am 115). He like-wise negated injustice from Himself; He

said, “Indeed, Allah does not wrong the people, but it is the people who wrong themselves” (Yunus 44).

He also forbade injustice in all its forms, including associating partners with Allah, which is the greatest act of injustice, as Allah has described: “And [mention], when Luqman said to his son while he was instructing him, ‘O my son, do not commit shirk with Allah. Indeed, shirk is a great injustice’” (Luqman 13). It is also from injustice for a person to wrong himself by disobeying the command of Allah and transgressing His limits, as He said, “And whoever transgresses the limits of Allah has certainly wronged himself ” (At-Talaq 1). It is also from injustice for a person to wrong another individual by transgress-ing against his rights, as Allah said, “He [Dawud] said, ‘He has cer-tainly wronged you in demanding your ewe [in addition] to his ewes. And indeed, many associates oppress one another, except for those who believe and do righteous deeds – and few are they’” (Sad 24).

Indeed, the establishment of the religion is not fully actualized ex-cept with the removal of all forms of injustice, and this is what the Islamic State today is working to achieve, by Allah’s grace. By waging war against shirk and subjecting the people to the rule of the Lord of all creation, the greater injustice is eliminated. And by commanding virtue and forbidding vice that which becomes manifest of man’s injus-tice towards himself through sin and vice is eliminated. And by estab-

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lishing Allah’s law among the people, implementing the hudud, and holding the people back from committing transgression, they are prevented from doing injustice to one another. Within this framework, the Islamic State established various bodies responsible for preventing the people from wronging one another and for eliminating injustice when it occurs from any individual or any party, and from among these bodies is the Central Office for Investigating Grievances.

Question: What are the other bodies in the Islamic State that oversee the prevention of wrongdoing and the elimination of injustice among the people?

Answer: The basic principle concerning this matter is that supporting one who has been wronged and taking the wrongdoer to account – even if he is a Muslim – is a crucial duty compulsory on every Muslim, as the Prophet said, “Come to your brother’s aid whether he is the wronged one or the wrongdoer.” A man asked, “O Mes-senger of Allah, I will come to his aid if he is wronged, but if he is the wrongdoer how can I come to his aid?” He said, “By obstructing him or preventing him from doing injustice, for to do so is to come to his aid” (Reported by al-Bukhari from Anas). This duty becomes even more compulsory when it comes to the soldiers of the Islamic State, given the trust which the leaders have burdened them to carry in this regard. The duty of the soldiers is in assisting their brothers in doing their job, those brothers who’ve been tasked with investigating grievances.

Due to the importance of preventing injustice, it’s be-come necessary for there to be designated bodies tasked solely with handling this issue. As such, the Islamic State – by Allah’s grace alone – established offices for grievances which fall under the Diwan of Judgment and Grievances, as well as offices for grievances in all the wilayat of the Islamic State which are under the direct administration of the offices of the wulat (plural of wali) such that the cas-es connected to the soldiers and leaders under the wali’s authority will reach them. Likewise, the Central Office for Investigating Grievances was established as an inde-pendent body specifically tasked with handling this issue. All of these bodies work together to investigate cases in which there is a sense of injustice, and to continue fol-lowing up on them until the injustice – if it exists – is eliminated.

Question: What is the purpose of having multiple bodies for tracking cases of injustice?

Answer: The Prophet said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and every one of you is responsible for his flock” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar). It is obligatory on anyone who has been entrusted by Allah

with anything of the affairs of the Muslims to prevent those he is responsible for from suffering injustice, and if it reaches him that this has occurred, he must endeavor to remove the injustice from them.

For this reason, there are multiple bodies in the Islamic State responsible for eliminating injustice, such that the subjects and soldiers of the Islamic State in the wilayat are able to lodge complaints with the wulat against the soldiers and leaders under their authority, and that people who have cases in the courts are able to lodge complaints with the Diwan of Judgment against the judges’ rulings so that their rulings can be reviewed, and that the Mus-lims in general who are residing in Dar al-Islam can lodge complaints against the wulat themselves or against the heads of the dawawin and the military leaders, or lodge complaints about the administrative procedures in the various dawawin with the Delegated Committee, which is the body that has tasked the Central Office for Investi-gating Grievances with this mission.

In this manner, we would have – by Allah’s permis-sion – made effort to open the door for the people to put forth their grievances against any individual or body in the Islamic State, and removed any factors preventing their cases from being resolved under the pretext that the body with whom cases are lodged is not responsible for investigating them, or that no one has any power over the accused party.

Question: What are the procedures the office follows when tracking cases that have been referred to it?

Answer: Once we’ve received a case and registered it, if there is a sense that injustice might have occurred in the case based on the complainant’s claims, we investigate the case, otherwise we dismiss it immediately.

The case is then examined, and if it has to do with someone under the authority of the wulat or the heads of the dawawin, it is transferred to them to investigate and report the results of the investigation to the office so they can re-assess the case. If the investigation meets all the requirements and the judgment is appropriate, the judgment is then validated, and if the investigation is de-ficient or the judgment in the case is inappropriate, it is transferred back to them for re-examination and our role at this point is to track the case on a continuous basis to ensure that it is re-examined and quickly resolved.

If, however, the case has to do with one of the wulat or one of the heads of the dawawin, or is against one of the Islamic State’s departments, we take up the matter and summon the accused or one of their representatives in or-der to investigate the case and listen to their defense con-

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cerning the issues that have been brought against them. A judgment is then made concerning the case, either re-dressing the grievance if the case is established, punishing or disciplining the wrongdoer, or dismissing the case if it becomes apparent that the accuser’s claims are false.

Question: With regards to the cases you investigate, you mentioned the term “sense of injustice.” What do you mean by that?

Answer: In order for it to become clear, I’ll give you two examples to compare so that you can understand what I mean. The first example: A leader transfers one of the soldiers under his command to another area due to his need for him in that area, either for a position that needs to be covered, or because of a need for his special-ization, or for some similar reason, and the soldier con-siders this unjust because it will take him far away from his family and place of residence. The second example: A leader transfers one of the soldiers under his command to another area as a form of discipline for an act of neg-ligence or a mistake, or as a pre-emptive measure to pre-vent the occurrence of something the leader is trying to avoid, and the soldier considers this unjust because the disciplinary punishment is not in line with the mistake he committed or because he doesn’t think he made a mistake to begin with. In the first case, there is no sense that any injustice has occurred since it is the leader’s right to trans-fer either one or all of his soldiers if the situation requires it and he is deserving of their obedience to him in that regard. As for the second case, there is a sense that injus-tice may have occurred, so we would work on the case until we determine the actual presence of injustice in the case and thus eliminate it, by Allah’s permission. Through the course of investigating hundreds of cases since the office was established we found that with nearly half of them there was no sense that any injustice had occurred, and they could in fact be called complaints or objections. As for the cases in which there was a sense that injustice may have occurred, we took them up, walhamdulillah, and settled the cases in relatively short periods of time, either by eliminating the injustice – if any had occurred – and taking the wrongdoer to account, or by explaining to the accuser the reason for dismissing his case if it became apparent that the accused was innocent of committing any injustice.

Question: Are there other tasks that the office is re-sponsible for?

Answer: Yes, for by Allah’s grace, the office has com-mittees that visit the various prisons in the Islamic State in order to meet with the prisoners and those under in-vestigation so they can look into their affairs and take their complaints if they have any. There are also commit-

tees that visit the frontiers and the ribat lines in order to follow up on the soldiers’ circumstances and look into their issues. In both matters, any cases in which there is a sense that injustice may have occurred are forwarded to the central office for investigation.

This is in addition to the meetings held with the trib-al heads and dignitaries in order to listen to their com-plaints and forward them to those in authority so they can be looked into.

Question: Is there any statement with which you would like to conclude this interview?

Answer: We advise the Muslims in general and the sol-diers of the Islamic State in particular not to wrong one another, and to know that injustice has a terrible end, and that it will be darkness on the Day of Judgment as described by the Prophet .

If anyone is wronged by his brother and wants to re-claim his right from him, the doors of the Central Office for Investigating Grievances as well as those of the oth-er offices tasked with this matter are open before him. He should forward his grievance to us, and if there is a right that belongs to him we will take back that right from whoever wronged him – even if it is someone who is among the dearest people to us – and we will not be dissuaded in that regard by the blame of any critic, by Allah’s permission. And if anyone is aware of himself hav-ing committed any injustice, he should fear Allah, hasten to repent, return any rights to whomever they belong, and seek pardon from the person he has wronged. And if anyone hears of a case of injustice that hasn’t reached us, let him not fail to assist the one who was wronged in for-warding his grievance to us – for among those wronged may be the weak, and among them may be an ignorant person who does not know how to forward his grievance or go about seeking his right – for if it reaches us he would have succeeded in delivering the grievance to those in au-thority and would be free of any blame before Allah. As for he who is silent concerning an injustice of which he is aware – by not conveying it to us – then he has aided the wrongdoer by remaining silent and has further embold-ened him to commit injustice. We ask Allah to rectify our condition and grant our lives a favorable end. Indeed, He is capable of ensuring that and bringing it about.

May Allah send blessings and peace upon our prophet, Muhammad. And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the creation.

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“And whoever Allah guides – for him there is no misleader. Is not Allah Exalted in Might and Owner of Retribution?” (Az-Zu-mar 37).

Here on this straight path of guidance lies the embodiment of triumph – blood-ied, dismembered, radiant. It is the shahid Abu Mansur al-Muhajir (Ezzit Raad) . We consider him so, and Allah is his judge. From a young age, the chivalrous muhajir refused to be subjugated by the shackles of humiliation and this perishing world. He chose, instead, to surrender his soul in obe-dience of his Lord and to wield the weapons of faith and honor in defiance of the kafir masses. He remained steadfast in the face of everything he was afflicted with, never weakening, never surrendering, until Allah gave him triumph and his blood was spilled, pouring forth and fueling the lantern that illuminates this noble path so that those who follow may traverse upon a clear road.

Indeed, this is the path of those who are truthful with their Lord, and no man has ever marched upon it and tasted the sweet-ness of self-sacrifice, except that they did so

through Allah’s guidance, and if we were to reflect on the story of Abu Mansur, and the story of the mujahir mujahid in general, we would truly be humbled by the monumental statement of our Lord, “Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path” (Al-Baqarah 213).

Abu Mansur – originally from Lebanon – came from Melbourne, Australia, a land cloaked in darkness and corrupted by kufr, fornication, and all forms of vice. Yet even in the midst of this darkness – and by Allah’s will – the flame of tawhid was ignited within his heart at the young age of 22 through the da’wah of a brother who visited the grieving Abu Mansur shortly after the death of his el-dest brother, Mansur. Thereafter, Abu Mans-ur made his way the way of the true believer, answering Allah’s clear statement, “So do not weaken and do not grieve, and you will be su-perior if you are believers” (Al ‘Imran 139).

With a newly acquired unyielding fervor and zeal for his religion, Abu Mansur raced his brothers towards righteousness. He invit-ed others to this noble path, but only to be confronted with the fitnah of strangeness and severe enmity, which began surfacing itself in

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Australia after the blessed attacks of September 11th, fol-lowing which the camp of iman and kufr became more distinct. The so-called “Islamic” organizations in Australia were pressured to do things in order to appease the kuffar, change their da’wah, and practice “Islam” in a manner that was acceptable to the Australian government. The so-called “Muslim” imams cloaked their cowardice with the words “hikmah” and “maslahah” until, as Shaykh An-war al-‘Awlaqi described, they left the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and “maslahah” became an idol that they began to worship.

Abu Mansur, however, was not one to make concessions to the kuffar at the expense of his religion. This angered the Australian government forcing them to plot against the muhawiddin with new, retrospective anti-terrorism laws that allowed them to prosecute and imprison Abu Mansur for being part of a terrorist organization. As Al-lah says, “They resented them not except because they be-lieved in Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy” (Al-Buruj 8). They also hated and targeted Abu Mansur and his likes because of their disassociation from the kuf-far, which was nothing but the excellent example of Ibra-him , who said to his people, “Indeed, we are innocent of you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have disbelieved in you, and there has appeared be-tween us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone” (Al-Mumtahanah 4).

During his imprisonment, Abu Mansur witnessed the betrayal of the imams of kufr, which added to his feeling of strangeness. In particular, he witnessed the treachery

of the apostate Samir Mohtadi, who volunteered as a wit-ness for the prosecution against the brothers, as well as the apostate Mohammed Omran (Abu Ayman), who called on his followers to participate in the kufri religion of de-mocracy, and also called on them to disassociate them-selves from the imprisoned brothers and their families. At the same time, these “imams” competed with one another to appease the kuffar by erecting “moderate” Islamic cen-ters. Rather than inciting their followers to carry swords, they encouraged them to carry pamphlets and make “street da’wah” to bikini-clad women. They carried on with their pacifist and even pro-democracy da’wah while Muslim women around the world were being abused, vil-ified, imprisoned, and violated at the hands of the kuffar and their puppets. This was one of the things that burned Abu Mansur the most, for he had tremendous jealousy for his sisters and his eyes would well with tears every time he heard of their suffering.

As the fitnah of strangeness increased around Abu Mansur during his five years of imprisonment, his iman also increased and he drew closer to his Lord. Despite missing the birth of his eldest son and his daughters’ childhoods, he remained patient, spending his time mem-orizing much of the Quran and reflecting upon it and the reality of sacrifice. Abu Mansur was released from prison more emboldened and more steadfast upon this path. He quickly set out to make hijrah, leaving behind his beloved wife and four children in order to bring triumph to this religion and to quench his thirst for the blood of the Nu-sayriyyah.

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Allah opened the door of hijrah for Abu Mansur and he became among the first muhajirin to enter the blessed land of epic battles – the land of Sham. He quickly sought to join the Islamic State – which was operating under the name “Jabhat an-Nusrah” at the time – and become a part of the project to unite the Ummah through the revival of the Khilafah. Upon Abu Mansur’s arrival in northern Halab, one of the senior leaders of the Islamic State – Abu Bakr al-‘Iraqi – met with Abu Mansur and immediately recognized his truthfulness. By Allah’s grace, he became one of his closest companions.

Abu Mansur would then go on to partake in many battles. Within just one month of giving bay’ah, he par-ticipated in the victorious battle of Ta’anah in the Halab countryside, and the battle of ‘Azizah, where he went in as an inghimasi only to come out alive by Allah’s decree. He quickly developed a reputation as a fierce warrior. He would race his brothers towards martyrdom, though many of them beat him to it, including his close friend from Australia Abu Salma (Sami Salma) who was killed in the battles for the Sikak (the Railroad). Abu Mansur, in fact, thought that he’d be killed in just a few months due to the ferocity of the fighting, but Allah blessed him with four years of jihad before granting him shahadah.

From the frontlines of Sikak, Abu Mansur was trans-ferred to the “Eye Hospital” base in Halab. Here, he began witnessing firsthand the emerging signs of misguidance in the policies of al-Jawlani and his cronies, including al-Jaw-lani’s willingness to make concessions in the religion and sell the blood of the mujahidin for the appeasement of the deviant factions in the so-called “Shar’i” Committee in Halab, which al-Jawlani had joined without approval from the top leadership of the Islamic State. It came as no surprise, therefore, that Abu Mansur immediately re-newed his bay’ah to Amirul-Muminin after the blessed an-nouncement of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, in obe-dience to Allah’s command, “O you who have believed, fear Allah and be with the truthful” (At-Tawbah 119).

The enmity of the various factions and the fitnah of strangeness only increased when the sahwat launched their war against the Islamic State. During the Sahwah offensive, Abu Mansur was besieged in Huraytan, his amir Abu Bakr al-‘Iraqi , who was like a father-figure to him, was killed, and he was separated from his child and his second wife whom he had married in Sham. Yet he would never become dejected due to his firm belief in the qadar of Allah. Rather, he would always be pleased with Allah’s decree and remain patient.

As the Islamic State battled its way out of Huraytan, Abu Mansur’s words and lofty example continued to in-spire those around him, particularly the young Australians who stayed close to him, including the young Abu Bakr (Adam Dahman) who quickly signed up to undertake an istishhadi operation against the sahwat but did not get to execute it due to the Islamic State breaking the siege in Huraytan before his opportunity came, leading him to

later travel to Iraq instead, and conduct an istishhadi op-eration on a Rafidi shrine, killing and wounding over 90 Rafidi murtaddin. May Allah accept him into the highest ranks of Jannah.

After Allah humiliated the sahwat at the hands of the Is-lamic State, Abu Mansur was assigned to do administrative work, despite his preference to remain on the battlefield. He was then granted permission to leave and help head up a new training camp. However, this role was short-lived as he was quickly transferred and placed as the amir of the Faruq Dam and the surrounding villages. His pleasant na-ture made him a truly beloved leader as he attended to the diverse needs of the community with diligence and taqwa. Assisting him in this role was his close friend from Austra-lia whom he loved dearly, Abu Zakariyya (Abu Bakr Jabir) , otherwise known as the “tall man” due to his lofty height and noble character. Abu Zakariyya continued as-sisting him for two years before he also attained shahadah after being hit by an airstrike while inspecting the ribat points in and around the Faruq Dam. Reflecting on Abu Zakariyya’s shahadah, Abu Mansur said, “He achieved it before me. He was more truthful than me.” This was the humble nature of Abu Mansur.

The shahadah of Abu Zakariyya was followed by the shahadah of a close family member of Abu Mansur, Abul-Mundhir (Nidal Ramadan, the brother of Abu Mansur’s wife) , who was killed in a drone strike and

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whose wife and child were also killed in an earlier drone strike that had targeted him. This triggered within Abu Mansur an unyielding passion to return to the frontlines. He repeatedly requested to be relinquished of his duties as amir and be given permission to fight. His requests were always rejected outright until Allah answered his du’a and the frontlines came to him instead as the PKK advanced from Sirrin towards the Faruq Dam. This, however, was only after the US-led coalition bombed everything in their path, as the PKK are cowards, incapable of facing the mujahidin.

Yet Abu Mansur never feared the Crusader airstrikes, as the remembrance of Allah’s greatness always overwhelmed him. He would proclaim, “If they strike me, then it is only by Allah’s decree. So how can I fear them? Isn’t the plane just a speck in the sky over this city of ours? And isn’t this city just a speck on this planet. And isn’t this planet just a speck next to those stars that decorate this universe like lanterns? And then what about the seven heavens and what about the kursi (footstool) of Allah the Almighty? What about the hadith that states, ‘The comparison of the seven heavens to the kursi is but like a ring thrown in a desert, and the excellence of the ‘arsh (throne) over the kursi is like the excellence of that desert over that ring’? This is the greatness of Allah compared to that fighter jet! Verily, it is He whom we should fear!” He would then recite, “Do you fear them? But Allah has more right that you should fear

Him, if you are believers” (At-Tawbah 13).

This was the strong ‘aqidah that Abu Mansur inspired his brothers with. His group rallied around him and they all pledged to fight the PKK to the death. They fought valiantly days on end despite heavy aerial bombardment, and continued to do so until Abu Mansur was given strict orders to withdraw his group and consolidate his forces in preparation for the Crusaders’ anticipated campaign against Manbij.

After relocating to Manbij, Abu Mansur separated him-self from his family in Sham in order to dedicate his time to fighting the enemies of Allah. He would say, “Allah will suffice them for me. He is more merciful towards them than me,” demonstrating his strong level of tawakkul and his sincerity in carrying out his duty.

Thus, Abu Mansur sacrificed the company of everyone who was precious to him to help establish and defend this khilafah, and on the 17th of Shawwal 1437 in the city of Manbij, he sacrificed his own soul, as a piece shrapnel struck him and tore his chest open, bringing him what he had long awaited – shahadah in the path of Allah.

Therefore, O lions of the Ummah, and those living in Australia in particular, follow the path of these righteous souls for there is no other path. The Khilafah has called for you to mobilize from your dens to alleviate the pain af-flicting the hearts of the Muslims by striking the kuffar in their homelands. It is only from the hikmah of Allah that he has scattered you around the earth and in the various lands of the Crusaders to see which of you are best in deeds. So here before you are the doors of jihad – unhinged, and in their lands! Light the ground beneath them aflame and scorch them with terror. Kill them on the streets of Bruns-wick, Broadmeadows, Bankstown, and Bondi. Kill them at the MCG, the SCG, the Opera House, and even in their backyards. Stab them, shoot them, poison them, and run them down with your vehicles. Kill them wherever you find them until the hollowness of their arrogance is filled with terror and they find themselves on their knees with their backs broken under the weight of regret for having waged a war against the believers, and by Allah’s will, and then through your sacrifices, this Ummah will be victorious.

“And Our word has already preceded for Our servants, the messengers, [that] indeed, they would be those given victory and [that] indeed, our soldiers will be those who overcome” (As-Saffat 171-173).

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Allah said in His noble Book, “O you who believe! Shall I guide you to a deal that will save you from a painful tor-ment? It is that you believe in Allah and His Messenger and wage jihad for His cause with your wealth and your souls. That is best for you if you only knew” (As-Saff 10-11). Belief in Allah and wag-ing jihad for His cause with wealth and soul are emphasized here, and jihad using one’s wealth is mentioned first because wealth is used initially in order to prepare equipment and arm the troops, and be-cause jihad using one’s physical self (soul) has exemptions – those who are excused from fighting – and the woman is exempt therefrom. As for waging jihad with one’s wealth, then there is no excuse for any-one whom Allah has enriched from His bounty and who has yet to spend. There is no difference, in this regard, between men and women, the old and the young, the blind and the seeing, and the sick and the healthy. As for the one who is poor,

then there is no sin upon him for not being able to spend, due to the saying of Allah , “Nor upon those who, when they came to you in order that you carry them (to battle), you said, ‘I do not have that upon which to carry you’” (At-Tawbah 92).

Allah’s Messenger said, “Wage ji-had against the mushrikin with your wealth, your souls, and your tongues” (Reported by Abu Dawud from Anas).

Regarding the wisdom in mention-ing jihad with one’s wealth before jihad with one’s soul, Ibnul-Qayyim said, “And a second point of interest is that wealth is dearly beloved by the soul, which exerts its effort in obtaining it, undergoes risks, and may even be ex-posed to death while seeking it. This proves that wealth is dearly beloved to the soul. So Allah commissioned those who love Him – the mujahidin

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for His cause – to spend what is dear and beloved to them in seeking His pleasure. For verily the goal is for Allah to be the most beloved thing to them, and for nothing else in existence to be more beloved to them than Him. So if out of His love they freely gave something they loved, He would move them on to another, better position – which is that they freely give their souls to Him, and that is the greatest extent of love” (Badai’ al-Fawaid).

It is known that women – other than those whom Allah protects, and they are very few – often engage in nonsense, showing ingratitude towards their husbands, backbiting, and other grave sins. So the Prophet guided them to that through which they could atone for some of what they have committed in this worldly life. Allah’s Messen-ger went out to the place of prayer on one of the days of Eid, either Adha or Fitr, and he passed by the women. So he said, “O women, give charity, for verily I was shown that you make up the majority of the people of Hellfire.” They said, “Why, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “You curse so much and are ungrateful to your husbands…” (Reported by al-Bukhari from Abu Sa’id al-Khudri).

A good example for women is Asma Bint Abi Bakr who, despite her poverty and need, and though she did not own any gold or jewelry, would ask the Prophet about charity. She said, “I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have nothing except what az-Zubayr placed in my house [of what he gave her]. Should I give some of it [in char-ity]?’ He said, ‘Give and do not horde things, lest Allah keep things from you’” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Mus-lim).

Ibn Hajar said, “The meaning of this hadith is the pro-hibition of restricting charity due to a fear of depletion, as that is the greatest reason for the absence of blessing, since Allah rewards – without measure – those who give. And whoever gives freely without counting how much he gave, then he will be given without measure [by Allah]. And whoever knows that Allah provides for him from whence he does not expect should give and not calculate” (Fath al-Bari).

Allah’s Messenger also said, “Verily Allah accepts charity, takes it by His right hand and raises it for one of you, as one of you raises his foal, until a morsel becomes like the size of Uhud” (Reported by at-Tirmidhi from Abu Hurayrah).

How, then, about the charity given to help prepare the mujahidin for Allah’s cause? Does anyone establish the re-ligion and protect the lands of Islam other than the mu-jahidin? Does anyone defend honor and spite the kuffar other than the mujahidin?

Al-Bukhari reported in “Chapter: The Excellence of One Who Prepares a Fighter or Takes Care of His Family,” from Zayd Ibn Khalid that Allah’s Messenger said, “Whoever prepares a fighter for Allah’s cause has himself fought, and whoever takes care of the family of a fighter

for Allah’s cause has himself fought.” This is what Amir-ul-Muminin ‘Uthman Ibn ‘Affan comprehended when he conducted his business with Allah, for which his re-ward was Paradise. He did not prepare a single fighter, but rather an entire army for the Battle of Tabuk. It was the Army of ‘Usrah, and what can make you comprehend what the Army of ‘Usrah was? That was the army called “‘Usrah” (hardship) because it was during difficult days and hard times for the Muslims. ‘Abdur-Rahman Ibn Sa-murah narrated that ‘Uthman came to the Prophet with one-thousand dinars when he was preparing the Army of ‘Usrah and dropped them in the Prophet’s lap. ‘Abdur-Rahman said, “I saw the Prophet looking at the money as he said two times, ‘Whatever ‘Uthman does af-ter today will not harm him’” (Reported by at-Tirmidhi).

Indeed, Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned a concise yet valuable fiqh-related statement regarding the status of waging jihad with one’s wealth, putting it ahead of other forms of charity. He said, “If the wealth was insufficient to both feed those who would die of hunger and to fund the jihad which would be harmed without it, we put waging jihad ahead, even if the hungry starved to death. This is like the issue of targeting human shields, but even more appropriate, as in that case we would be killing them by our own direct actions, while in this case they would die due to Allah’s action alone” (Al-Fatawa al-Kubra).

When we reflect over the condition of some of the women today, we notice them spending extravagantly on transient worldly things of clothing, jewelry, feasts, and so forth. All the while, we see them being miserly and stingy when it comes to the religion of Allah – though He is Rich and we are needy. “Here you are, those who are called to spend for Allah’s cause, yet some of you are stingy. And whoever is stingy is only stingy against him-self. And Allah is Rich and you are needy. And if you turn away, He will substitute [you] with another people, and they will not be like you” (Muhammad 38). So is the Muslim woman’s hand open to spend on the worldly life but closed to spend on what benefits her in the Hereafter? Will not someone follow the example of Sawdah , the Prophet’s wife and the Mother of the Believers? ‘Aishah

narrated that some of the Prophet’s wives said to the Prophet , “Which of us will be quickest to join you?” He said, “The one with the longest arm.” So they took a reed and measured (each other’s arms), and Sawdah had the longest arm. ‘Aishah said, “We learned later that she had the longest arm [in that she would extend it most] in sadaqah. Sawdah was the quickest to join him. She loved giving charity” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim).

The Muslim woman must not think that Allah only accepts what is much and abundant. Rather, a single dir-ham could very likely outdo more than a thousand, and half a date given by its owner as charity in this world could very likely save him from the fire of the Hereafter. Al-Mundhir Ibn Jarir narrated from his father who said, “We were with Allah’s Messenger in the middle of the

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day, when a group of barefoot, half-naked men wearing pieces of woolen garments, wielding swords arrived. Most of them, rather all of them, were from Mudar (a large Arab tribe). So the face of Allah’s Messenger changed when he saw their state of poverty. He entered his quarters then came out and ordered Bilal to call the adhan and establish the prayer. So he prayed and then addressed the people, saying, ‘O people! Fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul,’ until the end of the ayah, ‘Verily Allah is Watchful over you’ (An-Nisa 1), and the ayah in Surat al-Hashr, ‘Fear Allah and let each soul look at what it has prepared for tomorrow, and fear Allah’ (Al-Hashr 18). He then said, ‘Let each man give charity with a dinar, a dir-ham, a garment, a measure of wheat, a measure of dates,’ until he said, ‘even half of a date.’ So a man from the Ansar came with a bundle, almost bigger than his hand could hold, if not indeed bigger. Then people followed after him, until I saw two heaps of food and clothing and until I saw the face of Allah’s Messenger cheerful, as if it was shining like gold. So Allah’s Messenger said, ‘Whoever initiates a good practice in Islam, then he will receive its reward and the reward of whoever does it after him, without any of their rewards being diminished. And whoever initiates a bad practice in Islam, then he will bear its burden and the burden of whoever does it after him, without any of their burdens being diminished’” (Report-ed by Muslim).

Though the Muslim women may miss out on much goodness in waging jihad with the sword, due to Allah’s favoring men therein, the great gate of jihad with wealth is left wide open for the women who will make deals with their Lord, deals that will never end poorly. Shaykhul-Is-lam Ibn Taymiyyah said, “And whoever is unable to wage jihad with his body, but is capable of waging jihad with his wealth, then it is an obligation for him to wage

jihad with his wealth. This is the opinion of Ahmad as reported by Abul-Hakam, and it is what al-Qadi (Abu Ya’la) said in Ahkam al-Quran, regarding the ayah in Su-rat Baraah, ‘March forth light and heavy,’ (At-Tawbah 41) that it obliges those who have wealth to spend for Allah’s cause. As such, it is an obligation for women to wage jihad with their wealth, if they have any surplus” (Al-Fatawa al-Kubra).

Some women hoard gold, saying, “Perhaps one day, I will have nothing left to spend (for worldly things, of course), so I will sell this gold.” But ‘Aishah, the Mother of the Believers, did not follow such a policy. Rather, ‘Aishah gave seventy thousand in charity while she wore patched-up garments. Mu’awiyah even sent her a gift of one-hundred thousand dirhams – and the sun did not set that day until she had given all of it away in charity. This prompted her slave girl to say, “You could have used a dirham to purchase some meat for us,” to which she replied, “Why didn’t you say so (earlier)?”

If this was the condition of the Mothers of the Believers and the women of the Companions regarding charity and spending for Allah’s cause – and they are who they are – then is it not more appropriate for those Muslim women who are less than them, those whom Allah has given of His bounty, to make preparations for the everlasting life while they are able and living? And Allah says, “And spend of what We provided you before death comes to one of you, and he says, ‘My Lord! If only you delayed me for a short time, so that I can give charity and be among the righteous!’ And Allah will never delay a soul once its time has come. And Allah is Aware of what you do” (Al-Mu-nafiqun 10-11).

The Prophet said, “Charity has never diminished any

wealth” (Muslim).

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As the soldiers of the Khilafah con-tinue waging war on the forces of kufr, we take a glimpse at a number of re-cent operations conducted by the mu-jahidin of the Islamic State that have succeeded in expanding the territory of the Khilafah, or terrorizing, mas-sacring, and humiliating the enemies of Allah. These operations are merely a selection of the numerous operations that the Islamic State has conducted on various fronts across many regions over the course of the last few weeks.

Barakah WilayahThe soldiers of the Khilafah took control of vast territory, including a number of villages south of the city of Shaddadi, where they succeeded in killing more than 124 murtaddin and wounding dozens of others, in addi-tion to taking their weapons and ve-hicles as ghanimah. This rapid assault, which lasted only a few hours, brought the mujahidin closer to the city of Shaddadi.

This occurred when the soldiers of the Islamic State carried out a wide scale assault on locations of the mur-tadd PKK, close to the city of Shadd-adi, which caused a breakdown in the ranks of the murtaddin after only two hours from the time clashes erupted. The assault led to the mujahidin tak-ing control of several villages around the city.

The Islamic State soldiers began with an assault on the 20th of Dhul-Qa’dah, using heavy weapons to pound the positions of the murtadd PKK in the village of Kashkash Jubur, wherein the murtaddin had fortified themselves, which forced them to flee the village. An assault unit of the Islamic State then entered. After combing the area, they secured their control of the vil-lage.

The soldiers of the Khilafah con-tinued their advance and succeeded in entering the southern section of the village of ‘Azzawi, while inghima-si groups simultaneously cut off the

roads which connect the village to the city of Shaddadi and were being used

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by the murtaddin. One group of in-ghimasiyyin entered from the side of Hammadat, towards the village of Shaykh ‘Uthman, situated southwest of Shaddadi. Meanwhile, a second group of inghimasiyyin entered the village of ‘Adlah, the gateway to Sha-dadi from its southern side. After cut-ting off the roads and surrounding the murtaddin in the village of ‘Azzawi, the istishhadi brother, Abu Mus’ab Su-waydan , targeted a gathering close to the enemy’s position at the school, which was taken as their second defen-sive line away from the village. This re-sulted in the killing and wounding of many within their ranks.

To the west of Shaddadi, the istish-hadi brother Abu Yunus Harijah proceeded ahead of an assault unit, detonating his explosive vehicle on a gathering of the murtadd PKK in the village of Hammadat, killing and wounding a number of murtaddin. This led to the mujahidin assault unit taking control of the village.

In the area of Tallat Safiyyah, situ-ated west of the village of Kashkash Jubur and where the murtaddin had stationed themselves in heavily forti-fied positions, a group of inghimasi-yyin stormed their positions and the murtaddin turned and fled without any confrontation.

Allah granted victory to the sol-diers of the Islamic State as they broke through the front line of defense of the PKK murtaddin in less than two hours, causing a breakdown in the ranks of the murtaddin.

This was followed by an attack by the mujahidin, whereby they penetrated deep within the territory of the mur-taddin. They proceeded to assault the villages of Shaykh ‘Uthman and ‘Ad-lah, which represented a great threat to the murtaddin who had already started gathering their forces in the desert, close to the village of ‘Azzawi-yyah, north of Tallat Safiyyah. While they were gathering forces, the istish-hadi brother Abu Qudamah Hatlah embarked, first chasing them down as they attempted to flee, then detonat-ing his explosive vehicle in their midst.

What then followed was a huge col-lapse in morale within the ranks of the PKK. Fearing this collapse and the arrival of the soldiers of the Khilafah to the city of Shaddadi, the Crusaders

rushed to send their warplanes, dis-patching A10s, B52s, F16s, and un-manned Predator drones, which then began conducting dozens of systematic airstrikes on the villages taken by the mujahidin, and completely destroy-ing some of the villages, particularly the village of Kashkash Zayyanat. This forced the mujahidin to withdraw from some of the villages that they had previously entered.

The soldiers of the Islamic State took advantage of their ability to transfer the battle from one area to another, maneuvering to avoid the warplanes. In this manner, they were able to at-tack an area, stop, and then maneuver and attack an alternate area, dispersing the effects of the Crusader warplanes.

The soldiers of the Khilafah also as-saulted the village of Albu Salman, west of Shaddadi. The assault began with an istishhadi brother setting out towards a gathering of murtaddin, sending them fleeing from the village. The istishhadi brother continued pursuing the mur-taddin, chasing them, but returned shortly after without needing to det-onate his explosive vehicle as all of the murtaddin had fled. The mujahidin then took control of the village, tak-ing as ghanimah a 4-wheel drive vehi-cle mounted with a 14.5mm machine gun, an ammunition-filled truck, and a hummer.

Additionally, the soldiers of the Kh-ilafah conducted a raid on a group of murtaddin in the village of ‘Inad, close to Shaddadi. The istishhadi brother Abul-Bara Muhasan advanced to-wards them, detonating his explosive vehicle in the midst of their vehicles parked next to one of their barracks in the village, destroying their barracks and all those inside.

These operations resulted in the kill-ing of around 124 murtaddin and the wounding of dozens of others. The soldiers of the Khilafah, as a result of their battles in the village of ‘Azzawi, also succeeded in capturing three of the murtaddin.

Halab WilayahOn the 15th of Dhul-Qa’dah, in a second special operation targeting the Crusaders and murtadd PKK in the housing area of the Faruq Dam, which is considered a heavily fortified bar-racks for the Americans, as well as the

location of their military operations room from where they supervise the battles around Manbij, a group con-sisting of 5 inghimasiyyin of the Kh-ilafah assaulted the enemy, clashing with the murtaddin inside. The assault began at Fajr and continued until ‘Asr of the same day. During the course of the attack, American warplanes inter-vened, carrying out a number of air-strikes in support of the murtaddin. There was no way to credibly verify the extent of losses incurred by the mur-taddin as a result of the assault.

The area of the Faruq Dam had wit-nessed a similar attack on the 7th of Dhul-Qa’dah, when 7 inghimasiyyin conducted an attack that resulted in the killing and wounding of 41 PKK fighters and American soldiers.

On the same day, 4 soldiers of the Khilafah carried out an inghimasi as-sault on locations of the PKK mur-taddin in the village of ‘Imarah, north of the city of Manbij. Fierce clashes ensued, during which the inghimasi brothers used light weapons and hand

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grenades, killing an American Crusad-er and 6 murtaddin of the PKK.

In addition to that, 46 murtaddin were killed and 22 were wounded, while a number of their vehicles were destroyed on the 19th of Dhul-Qa’dah after they stumbled into a minefield, northwest of the city of Manbij, fol-lowing an attack on their positions south of the city.

The following day, the murtaddin of the PKK also suffered additional loss-es when their positions, near the town of al-Khafsah, close to Manbij, were struck by 4 istishhadi operations, the last of which was on the 25th of Dhul-Qa’dah, which resulted in the killing and wounding of nearly 70 of them.

South Baghdad WilayahOn the 25th of Dhul-Qa’dah, a num-ber of Islamic State soldiers carried out an attack on a large group of Rafidi Mobilization fighters in the area of Karbala. The 4 mujahidin were wear-ing explosive belts and carrying light weapons and hand grenades when they assaulted a gathering of murtad-din in the city of ‘Ayn at-Tamr, west of Karbala. They clashed with them and succeeded in killing no less than 100 of them, while wounding dozens more.

Thereafter, the inghimasi brothers succeeded in taking control of a neigh-borhood inside the city, clashing with members of the Rafidi Mobilization for a duration of 5 continuous hours.

This was followed by 3 of the inghima-si brothers detonating their explosive belts amid a group of Rafidah, kill-ing and injuring many of them. The fourth brother was killed as a result of the firefight, and we ask Allah to ac-cept all of them as shuhada.

Anbar WilayahAn American contractor was killed and 2 others were wounded on the 18th of Dhul-Qa’dah as a result of an explosive device detonating against them, south of the city of Ramadi.

Media outlets reported that the dis-trict commissioner of Ramadi, the murtadd Ibrahim al-‘Awsaj said, “An American contractor was killed while another was afflicted with wounds as a result of them attempting to defuse an explosive device in the area of Mal’ab, south of Ramadi.”

In that context, the British Am-bassador to Baghdad announced that same day that a British contractor was killed in the city of Ramadi as he was attempting to remove an explosive de-vice that the soldiers of the Khilafah had planted.

It was also mentioned that the Americans and the Briton were em-ployees of the company Janus Global Operations, which specializes in the removal of mines. The company has a contract with the Rafidi government, which involves the removal of mines planted by the soldiers of the Khila-fah during the battle of Ramadi. These

mines played a major role in causing mass casualties and losses within the ranks of the Rafidah.

Dijlah WilayahFierce battles continued to be waged between the soldiers of the Islamic State and the Rafidi army close to the two cities of Qayyarah and Shirqat, in which the soldiers of the Khilafah succeeded in afflicting heavy losses on the murtaddin in both personnel and equipment. Hundreds were killed, while more than 70 vehicles of vari-ous types were destroyed, including 4 Abrams tanks.

The Rafidi army was plagued with heavy losses as a result of the attacks mounted by the soldiers of the Islamic State on their positions near the city of Qayyarah on the 12th of Dhul-Qa’dah, where dozens of murtaddin were killed and 5 vehicles, 4 hummers, a Cougar APC, a BMP, 5 other per-sonnel carriers, and 2 military barracks were all destroyed.

The soldiers of the Islamic State ex-tended their operations against the Rafidi army and their militias and launched 3 attacks, consisting of 5 istishhadi soldiers of the Khilafah, as they struck the positions of the mur-taddin both south and southwest of Shirqat. This resulted in the killing and wounding of several of them, as well as the destruction of 27 vehicles, which included personnel carriers and other vehicles mounted with machine guns.

On the 19th of Dhul-Qa’dah, Amer-ican Crusader warplanes, aided by

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their artillery units stationed at Qay-yarah Airbase, launched a campaign of air raids on the city of Qayyarah, supported by additional air raids from combat helicopters belonging to the Rafidi government. Due to this, and while benefiting from the air and ar-tillery bombardment, the Rafidi army succeeded in entering and taking con-trol of the city.

Meanwhile, the soldiers of the Is-lamic State succeeded in damaging 4 Abrams tanks, destroying 16 hum-mers, a bulldozer, a Cougar armored personnel carrier, and various types of armored vehicles, while also damaging another armored personnel carrier on the outskirts of the city of Qayyarah. Additionally, several members of the Rafidi army and their militias were killed and wounded.

On the 23rd of Dhul-Qa’dah, the losses of the Rafidi army were further increased as a result of an attack ini-tiated by the mujahidin, consisting of 4 istishhadi operations that struck the positions of the Rafidah, southwest of Shirqat. This was followed by 3 is-tishhadi operations carried out on the 24th of Dhul-Qa’dah in the villages of Malihah and ‘Ubayd as-Sayil and close to the junction of Hadar.

These istishhadi attacks resulted in the killing of hundreds of members of the Rafidi army and its militias, in ad-dition to many of their vehicles being destroyed.

Tarabulus WilayahViolent battles continue to rage be-tween the soldiers of the Islamic State and the murtadd militia of the Gov-ernment of National Accord, support-ed by America. The steep quantity of

those killed and wounded among the murtaddin has led to the consumption of much of their manpower, while ex-hausting much of their capabilities.

On the 12th of Dhul-Qa’dah, the city of Sirte witnessed fierce clashes, coupled with 2 istishhadi operations.

In a statement it had released, the media office of Tarabulus Wilayah mentioned that fierce confrontations took place between the mujahidin and the murtaddin in the neighborhood of Ithnayn. During the clashes, two istishhadiyyin succeeded in reaching the American-backed murtaddin and detonated their explosive vehicles in their midst. This resulted in the kill-ing and wounding of more than 70 murtaddin from the Government of National Accord, while additionally destroying a tank, a personnel carrier, 2 armored vehicles, and a number of 4-wheel drive vehicles.

The losses suffered by the murtadd

militia of the Government of National Accord was not limited to just that, as more than 40 fighters of the murtad-din were killed on the 14th of Dhul-Qa’dah as a result of 2 istishhadi broth-ers storming their positions in the area of Thuhayr, west of the city of Sirte.

‘Adan Abyan WilayahThe soldiers of the Islamic State, on the 25th of Dhul-Qa’dah, targeted a recruitment center belonging to the taghut army of ‘Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in Aden, in the southern part of the country, which resulted in the kill-ing of 60 murtaddin.

The media office of ‘Adan Abyan Wilayah clarified that the istishhadi, Abu Sufyan al-‘Adani targeted a recruitment center belonging to the taghut government of Hadi, an ally of the murtadd Arab Coalition, in the area of Mansurah in ‘Adan. By the grace of Allah, he was able to breech

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the security checkpoints and circum-vent the tight security measures that the murtaddin had imposed on the area, and succeeded in detonating his vehicle on the center.

The media office of the wilayah add-ed that the attack led to more than 60 murtaddin being killed and dozens be-ing wounded.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time the soldiers of the Islamic State have targeted the recruit-ment centers of the taghut Hadi. Pre-viously, at the beginning of the month of Sha’ban, an istishhadi targeted a re-cruitment center in the area of Khawr Maksur, in the center of ‘Adan, killing and wounding roughly 100 murtad-din.

East AsiaThe soldiers of the Khilafah in East Asia, on the 23rd of Dhul-Qa’dah, succeeded in freeing 30 prisoners, including several mujahidin, after they assaulted a prison in the city of Marawi.

Amaq Agency was able to con-firm that 30 soldiers of the Khilafah stormed the Marawi prison and suc-ceeded, by the grace of Allah, in free-ing 30 prisoners, including a number of soldiers of the Islamic State and their wives, and to Allah belongs all praise.

As a result of the assault, the sol-diers of the Islamic State managed to take light weapons as ghanimah, while also burning a Filipino Crusad-er police vehicle.

Amaq Agency also added that those who carried out the assault, along with the freed prisoners, all arrived safely to their bases without suffering any injuries.

Additionally, a number of soldiers from the Filipino Crusader army were killed and wounded due to clashes with the soldiers of the Khi-lafah on the Island of Basilan at the beginning of the month. The soldiers of the Khilafah likewise succeeded in hitting a warplane belonging to the Crusader army as it attempted to bomb the positions of the mujahidin.

SomaliaOn the 14th of Dhul-Qa’dah, the sol-diers of the Islamic State launched an assault on one of the positions of the

African Coalition in the city of Moga-dishu in Somalia.

Amaq Agency reported that the as-sault targeted a barracks belonging to the African Coalition in the area of Arba’u, on the outskirts of the city of Mogadishu.

The soldiers of the Islamic State had carried out two separate attacks on members of the murtadd Somali in-telligence in the cities of Baidoa and Mogadishu earlier, during the month of Shawwal, which resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of murtaddin.

RussiaOn the 14th of Dhul-Qa’dah, two sol-diers of the Islamic State launched an attack on members of the Russian po-lice force, west of Moscow, killing and wounding several of them.

Amaq Agency reported that two soldiers of the Khilafah, ‘Uthman Mardalov and Salim Israilov attacked members of the Russian Crusader po-lice force in the area of Balashikha, west of Moscow. The attack resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of them. The 2 brothers were killed when they came under gunfire from Russian security forces. May Allah ac-cept them both as shuhada.

It may have been the first attack of its kind in Moscow, but it was not howev-er the first time that the Russian Cru-sader forces have been targeted. The

Russian army has been the victim of a number of attacks by the mujahidin in Qawqaz Wilayah, which have killed and wounded several of their soldiers. These operations reflect a great chal-lenge to the tawaghit and highlights huge flaws in their security apparatus, while refuting their claims of having defeated the mujahidin in Qawqaz.

Additionally, the Russian forces, which entered the land of Sham in support of the Nusayri army in their fight against the Islamic State, have suf-fered both human and material losses, with one such case being that a Rus-sian combat helicopter was shot down, killing 5 Russian military advisors in Hims Wilayah.

Perhaps the most famous operation carried out by the soldiers of the Kh-ilafah against Crusader Russia was the downing of one of their commercial airplanes, killing more than 220 Cru-sader Russians in Sinai Wilayah.

It has been noted that the escalating frequency of Islamic State operations places more pressure on the Russian government and their followers, who are already suffering a huge financial crisis, especially after their involve-ment in providing air and ground sup-port for the Nusayri regime.

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Allah has honored knowledge and its people, raising their worth and elevating their status. Allah said, “Allah testi-fies that there is nothing worthy of worship except Him, as do the angels and those with knowledge” (Al ‘Imran 18). Al-Qurtubi said, “If anyone was more honored than the scholars, Allah would have mentioned them along with His name and that of the angels, just as He mentioned the scholars” (Al-Jami’ li-Ahkam al-Quran). Likewise, Allah ne-gated any equality between the scholars and others. He said, “Say, ‘Are those who know and those who do not know equal?’ Only those with deep understanding will remem-ber” (Az-Zumar 9).

And Allah ordered to refer to them, as He said, “Then ask the people of remembrance if you do not know” (An-Nahl 43). But is knowledge simply memorizing texts, study-ing long books, reviewing manuscripts, being acquainted with the various opinions, and composing commercial works? Certainly not!

The scholars whom Allah praised and called “those with knowledge” are those who act upon their knowledge and convey it to others. Ash-Shatibi said, “Knowledge, as it is understood in the Shari’ah – I mean the knowledge whose people Allah and His Messenger absolutely praised – is knowledge that instigates action” (Al-Muwafaqat). Once a correlation is made between knowledge and action, it follows that there is no action without knowledge and no knowledge without action.

As for knowledge accompanied by good deeds, then it is what yields fear of Allah, bearing a person to publicly de-clare the truth lest he earn Allah’s anger and punishment. Allah said, “Only those who fear Allah, of His slaves, are the knowledgeable ones” (Fatir 28), and Ibn ‘Abbas said,

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“Those who are knowledgeable of Allah are those who fear him” (Az-Zuhd – Abu Dawud). And Ibn Mas’ud said, “Knowledge is not an abundance of reports, but knowledge is fear [of Allah]” (Hilyat al-Awliya).

Likewise, one of the deeds directly correlated to knowl-edge is jihad for Allah’s cause, for jihad is the companion of knowledge, as found in the hadith in which the Prophet said, “For whomever Allah wants well, He gives him fiqh (comprehension) of the religion, and there will not cease to be a group of Muslims fighting upon the truth, defeating whoever opposes them, until the Day of Resurrection” (Re-ported by Muslim from Mu’awiyah).

The mentioning of both knowledge and jihad in this had-ith indicates the correlation between the two, and that the people thereof are the victorious group (at-Taifat al-Mans-urah); so upholding the religion and manifesting the truth cannot come about except through knowledge and jihad.

This was the situation of the Sahabah , those who were the most knowledgeable of the Ummah, as they joined knowledge with jihad. Whoever looks into the biographies of the Sahabah, whether from the Muhajirin or the Ansar, will find that many of them were killed on the fronts of jihad, fully achieving knowledge and action. On the Day of Yamamah, for example, the memorizers of Allah’s Book began to be killed, as when the banner fell, Salim Mawla Abi Hudhayfah took hold of it. The Muslims said to him, “O Salim! We fear that we will be overtaken from your direction.” So he said, “What a wicked bearer of the Quran I would be if you were overtaken from my direction!” So he went forth and fought until he was killed (At-Tabaqat al-Kubra).

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On that path, the Tabi’in and the rest of the imams trav-eled, having for themselves many ventures in the fields of ribat and combat, despite jihad and ribat – in their days – being only fard kifayah (communally, not personally, oblig-atory).

These were the imams among the people of hadith and zuhd (disregard for the worldly life). Just as they participat-ed in narrating knowledge, they also participated in ribat, guarding outposts, and archery. These are the likes of al-Aw-za’i, ‘Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak, Ibnul-Qasim, Abu Ishaq al-Fizari, Makhlad Ibn al-Husayn, Ibrahim Ibn Adham, Hudhayfah al-Mar’ishi, Yusuf Ibn Asbat, and many others. Indeed, they translated their knowledge into action with ribat and jihad. There were even some muhaddithin who would stay in towns bordering Dar al-Harb so they could always be in ribat, like the Imam ‘Isa Ibn Yunus. As such, the two imams Ibnul-Mubarak and Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, as well as others, would say, “If the people disagree about something, then examine what the people of the frontlines are upon, as the truth is with them, for Allah says, ‘And those who perform jihad for Us, We shall surely guide them to Our paths’” (Al-‘Ankabut 69).

Throughout the ages, scholars from the people of had-ith were found upholding the duty of jihad and declaring the truth, like Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who open-ly declared the truth and waged jihad, fighting against the Tatars, and Imam Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhab, who fought the mushrikin inside the Arabian Peninsula and waged jihad against them with weapons and words.

Even in our time, there have been those by whom Allah revived both knowledge and creed, those who went pub-lic with the truth and by whom the truth became man-ifest. They were those who joined knowledge with jihad, like Shaykh Abu Mus’ab az-Zarqawi, Shaykh Abu Anas ash-Shami, Shaykh ‘Abdullah ar-Rashud, Shaykh Abul-Hasan al-Filistini, and Shaykh Maysarah al-Gharib .

Likewise, those who know but do not act upon their knowledge are dispraised according to the Shari’ah. They are not considered “those with knowledge” and are not called “scholars” with the meaning intended by the Shari’ah. How could such persons be called “scholars” while they are hated by Allah and have earned His wrath?! Indeed, Allah got an-gry with the Jews and called them “al-maghdub ‘alayhim” (those who have conjured His anger) due to their not acting upon their knowledge.

And Allah also said, “Greatly hated, according to Al-lah, is that you say what you do not do” (As-Saff 3). This verse contains evidence of Allah’s great hatred for those who know but do not act.

Furthermore, the Quran clarifies that whoever knows the truth but conceals his knowledge is cursed, as in His saying, “Verily those who conceal what We revealed of clear evidences and guidance after We clarified such to the people in the Book, [then] these Allah curses and the cursers [also]

curse them” (Al-Baqarah 159). It is known from all of the above that “those with knowledge” are those who carry it, act upon it, and openly declare it.

Allah even described whoever does not act upon his knowledge as being ignorant, as in His saying about the “scholars” of the Jews who followed sorcery, “And they did surely know that whoever purchased it shall have nothing in the Hereafter, and how bad is that for which they sold their souls, if only they knew” (Al-Baqarah 102). The evidence in this ayah is His saying, “and they did surely know” followed by “if only they knew,” as by not acting upon their knowl-edge, they were ignorant.

As such, whoever does not act upon his knowledge by openly declaring it and waging jihad or by concealing it and dressing up the truth in falsehood, then he is not truly a scholar. Rather, he is a devil – whether vocal or mute.

The people of knowledge did not count the people of bida’ (heretical innovations) as scholars, just as Ibn ‘Abdil-Barr said regarding the heretics of kalam (polemical speech), “The people of fiqh and athar (traditional narrations) in the major cities have altogether agreed that the people of po-lemics are people of heresy and deviance, and are not count-ed among the ranks of the fuqaha, and the scholars are only the people of athar” (Jami’ Bayan al-‘Ilm wa Fadlih), so how would it be if they were to have seen how the Ummah has been afflicted with the imams of kufr today?

Anyone who looks at those who are ascribed to knowl-edge in our later times will find that the vast majority of them are not scholars and are not counted among the peo-ple of knowledge, due to their failure to fulfill the duty of action. They did not declare the truth in the faces of the tawaghit, but instead concealed the knowledge and dressed up the truth in falsehood, misguiding the slaves of Allah while they knew of the verses regarding fighting and com-bat. They turned away from their duty of action, thus being at odds with the Sunnah of the Prophet and that of the Sahabah and Tabi’in. They are seen as having studied the texts of wala and bara, yet wandered away from them. They learned the verses regarding the obligation of conveying and clarifying the truth, yet they concealed it and resorted to flattering Allah’s enemies. Are these the ones whom Allah called “those with knowledge?!” Far be it from Him! Cer-tainly not! Rather, they are the people of misguidance who are threatened with punishment for abandoning action and concealing the truth. How then, if one knows that most of those who are famously attributed to knowledge in our time have displayed their obedience to the taghut and have entered into his allegiance, supporting him against any of the muwahiddin who rise against him? The ruling about whoever does this is well-known in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger .

Therefore, Ibn Baz, Ibn ‘Uthaymin, al-Fawzan, Al ash-Shaykh (the contemporaries), Muhammad Hassan, al-Hu-wayni, Husayn Ya’qub, al-Qardawi, al-Buti, an-Nabulusi, al-Ghiryani, al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatadah, al-Haddushi, and

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al-Fahl are not scholars.

Where is their acting upon knowledge?! Where is their open declaration of the truth?! Where is their rejection of the shirk of the tawaghit?! Where is their fighting, combat, and ribat?! Where is their clarifying the truth and guiding the people?! Where is their confronting of the disbeliev-ers’ violent campaigns against the Muslims?! Or have they just become – with their own approval – mere sticks in the hands of the tawaghit used to strike the mujahidin, all in the name of the Shari’ah and the religion? These people are no more than “imams” of misguidance and “scholars” of taghut.

Let not them and their false claims of having knowledge mislead you, for their supposed knowledge will actually be held against them. Indeed, their possession of knowledge of the Shari’ah is just like the orientalists who possess that same knowledge. In fact, some of the Christian orientalists have become so-called “experts” in the science of hadith, like Arent Jan Wensinck, who was a Dutch orientalist and author of the “Concordance and Index of Muslim Tradi-tion,” or like Gösta Vitestam, who published his own edi-tion of “Ar-Radd ‘alal-Jahmiyyah” by ad-Darimi. So would these orientalists enter into “those with knowledge” and would it be correct to call them “scholars?!”

The Prophet spoke about the first of people who would be dealt with on the Day of Resurrection, and he mentioned among them, “a man who learned knowledge – and taught it – and recited the Quran. So he will be brought and will be reminded of the blessings he received, which he will recognize. Allah will say, ‘What did you do with it?’ He will say, ‘I learned and taught, and I recited the Quran for

You.’ Allah will say, ‘You lie! Rather, you learned so that it would be said, ‘He is a scholar,’ and you recited the Quran so that it would be said, ‘He is a reciter.’ And indeed it was said.’ Then he will be dragged on his face until he is thrown into the Fire” (Reported by Muslim from Abu Hurayrah).

Consider that if the corrupt intention of a scholar (who very possibly acted upon his knowledge) will send him to destruction, then what about one whose action contradicts his knowledge, and who conceals the truth and misguides people?! What about someone who obeys the taghut and supports his rule?!

Harim Ibn Hayyan said, “Beware of the fasiq (openly sinful) scholar.” This reached ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab , so he wrote to him, asking him what he meant by “the fasiq scholar.” So Harim wrote to ‘Umar, saying, “He is an imam who speaks with knowledge, but acts with fisq (open sin), thus the people become confused and misguided” (Report-ed by ad-Darimi). This is regarding a fasiq, so what about the deviant who misguides others and has exited the reli-gion?

This should clarify the invalidity of the popular saying of some ignorant people, regarding people who are wrongfully called scholars, “Take his knowledge and leave his deeds.” Rather, ask about his deeds, his open declaration of the truth, his waging jihad, and his fear of his Lord just as you ask about his knowledge and expertise. Only then will it be clear whether or not he is a scholar, for verily the one who betrays the trust in action will betray it in knowledge.

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Today we observe a major occasion from among the occasions of worship, this occasion being the first ten days of the sacred month of Dhul-Hijjah, the best ten days of the year according to Allah , and He has legislated deeds for us to do during these days so that we may recover what we’ve missed and mend the shortcomings in our worship. So what is the status of these ten days? And what is their virtue? What are the most important acts of worship under-taken in these days?

It is sufficient, in clarifying the virtue of these majestic days, that Allah swore by them with His words, “By the dawn, and [by] ten nights” (Al-Fajr 1-2). Ibn Kathir said, “What is meant by the ten nights is the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, as stated by Ibn ‘Ab-bas, az-Zubayr, Mujahid, and multiple others from the salaf and khalaf,” and Allah does not swear except by something signifi-cant! Ibnul-Qayyim said, “A period of time that encompasses deeds such as this is worthy of the Lord swearing by it” (At-Tibyan).

Furthermore, the Prophet clari-fied that the first ten days of the month of Dhul-Hijjah are better than all the days in this world, and that a good deed done in these days is better than all deeds done in other days. He said, “No deed is better than the deeds in these days (i.e. the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah).” They said, “Not even jihad?” He said, “Not even jihad, except a man who risks his soul and wealth and re-turns with nothing” (Reported by al-Bukhari from Ibn ‘Abbas).

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali said, “This had-ith indicates that a deed in these days [meaning the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah] is more beloved to Allah than a deed in all other days of the world without any exception, and if it is more beloved to Allah then it is better according to Him” (Lataif al-Ma’arif ). Ibnul-Qayy-

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im said, “The ten days of Dhul-Hijjah were deemed vir-tuous due to the days they include, for included among them is the day of slaughter, the day of ‘Arafah, and the day of Tarwiyah [the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah, the day in which hajj is commenced]” (Zad al-Ma’ad).

Among these ten days is a day that is great according to Allah. It is the day of ‘Arafah, the witnessed day, the day on which Allah completed the religion, and fasting on it expiates the sins of two years. Also among these days is the day of slaughter, which is the greatest day of the year, the day of the greater hajj on which comprises a number of acts of obedience and worship that are not gathered together on any other day.

Indeed, reaching these ten days is a tremendous bless-ing from the blessings of Allah upon His slaves, which none but the worshipers and the diligent truly appreciate. So the obligation upon the Muslim slave is to perceive this blessing and take advantage of this opportunity, for the Salaf would be diligent in worship on these days more so than any other day, as established in their beautiful biog-raphies.

There are many virtuous deeds that the Muslim should strive to perform on these days, such as jihad for the cause of Allah, reciting the Quran, diligently attending the con-gregational prayer in the masajid, being dutiful to one’s parents, upholding the ties of kinship, being good to one’s neighbors, reconciling between people, honoring one’s guest, spending for the cause of Allah, visiting the sick, etc. However, there are certain deeds that are specified for these days, including:

Making Much Dhikr: Allah said, “That they may witness benefits for themselves and mention the name of Allah on known days” (Al-Hajj 28). Ibn Rajab said, “The bulk of the scholars hold the view that these known days are the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah” (Al-Lataif ).

For this reason, the Prophet enjoined upon the Mus-lims much tahlil (saying “la ilaha illallah”), takbir (saying “Allahu akbar”), and tahmid (saying “alhamdulillah”) in these days, as in his statement, “There are no days that are greater according to Allah or on which a deed is more beloved to Him than these ten days, so make much tahlil, takbir, and tahmid in them” (Reported by Ahmad from Ibn ‘Umar).

Al-Bukhari said in his “Sahih,” “‘Umar RA would make takbir in his tent in Mina and the people in the masjid would hear him, so they would make takbir, and the peo-ple in the market would make takbir, to the point that Mina would shake with takbir. Ibn ‘Umar would make takbir in Mina on those days, and would do so after the prayers, and on his mattress, in his pavilion, in his gath-erings, and on the pathways throughout all those days.”

Therefore, takbir is from among the deeds of the Sun-nah specified for these ten days, and it is of two types: tak-bir performed generally and takbir performed at a specific time. Takbir is performed, in general, at all times, from the first of the ten days to the end of the days of tashriq (the 13th of Dhul-Hijjah). As for the takbir performed at a specific time, it is done after the five daily prayers (after the salam in the obligatory prayers) and it begins from fajr on the day of ‘Arafah – for those not performing hajj – and lasts until ‘asr on the last day of tashriq, as was reported

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from some of the Sahabah. As for the one performing hajj, then he begins his takbir when he stones Jamrat al-‘Aqa-bah on the day of Eid.

The wording of the takbir is as follows: “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, la ilahah illallah, wallahu akbar, Allahu ak-bar, walillahil-hamd” (Reported by Ibn Abi Shaybah from Ibn Mas’ud). There are also other wordings mentioned in the athar.

Fasting: It is a sunnah for the Muslim to fast the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah (all of them or however many of them is easy for him), for it is reported that one of the wives of the Prophet said, “Allah’s Messenger would fast [the first] nine days of Dhul-Hijjah” (Reported by Abu Dawud), and most of the scholars hold the view that fasting the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah is highly recommended (Sharh Sahih Muslim – An-Nawawi).

Slaughtering an Udhiyah (Sacrificial Animal): From among the deeds performed in these ten days is to seek to draw closer to Allah by slaughtering an udhiyah. The udhiyah is an emphasized sunnah according to the ma-jority of the fuqaha, so the Muslim who is capable of this should not neglect it, for Allah’s Messenger persisted upon it, as did the Sahabah after him.

It is reported that Ibn ‘Umar said, “Allah’s Messenger remained in Madinah for ten years slaughtering udhi-yah” (Reported by at-Tirmidhi who declared it Hasan). Ibnul-Qayyim said, “He never used to leave off the udhiyah” (Zad al-Ma’ad).

Hajj and ‘Umrah: Indeed, from the best deeds that the slave can perform in these ten blessed days is to perform hajj to the sacred House of Allah, if he is able to do so. Therefore, if one is enabled by his Lord to perform hajj to His House and performs the rites of the hajj in the appropriate manner, he will have a share in the statement of His Prophet , “One ‘umrah to the another expiate the sins committed between them, and the reward for an accepted hajj is nothing but Jannah” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Abu Hurayrah).

We ask Allah to strengthen the mujahidin of the Is-lamic State so they may liberate Makkah and Madinah from the tawaghit of Al Salul – may Allah disgrace them – and to bless us with hajj and ‘umrah in the shade of the Shari’ah.

One may ask, “How do we reconcile between the hadith of the Prophet in which he declares the deeds in the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah to be better than all other deeds, and between the many mutawatir ahadith which establish the virtue of jihad for the cause of Allah over all other deeds and also declare that it is the peak of Islam?” An example of this is the hadith in which Allah’s Messenger was asked “Which deed is best?” He replied, “Believing in Al-lah and His Messenger.” Someone asked, “Then what?” He said, “Jihad for the cause of Allah” (Reported by al-

Bukhari and Muslim from Abu Hurayrah).

When reconciling between these texts, the author of “Fayd al-Bari” stated, “This is the case when jihad is not obligatory, for the statements having to do with the vir-tues of deeds are concerning those that are not obligatory.” Ibn Rajab said, “The obligatory deeds of the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah are better than the obligatory deeds of any other ten days, and the voluntary deeds of the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah are better than the voluntary deeds of any other ten days, but the voluntary deeds of the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah are not better than the obligatory deeds of any other days … So fasting ten days of Ramadan is better than fasting ten days of Dhul-Hijjah because the obligatory deed is better than the voluntary deed” (Fath al-Bari).

Likewise, the scholars have concluded that jihad – even if it is offensive jihad – is the best of deeds and nothing is equal to it at all. Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The scholars have agreed – as far as I know – that there are no voluntary deeds better than jihad, so it is better than voluntary hajj, better than voluntary fast, and better than voluntary prayer” (Majmu’ al-Fatawa).

How is it then if it is defensive jihad and it becomes obligatory on every Muslim, as is the case today?! Ibn Tay-miyyah said about the jihad to repel the Tatars, “By Allah, even if the first forerunners from the Muhajirin and Ansar, such as Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali, and other than them, were present in this era, waging jihad against these criminals would be from among the best of their deeds” (Majmu’ al-Fatawa).

Therefore, if jihad is fard ‘ayn (as is the case with de-fensive jihad), it is better than all other acts of worship (whether obligatory or recommended), and if jihad is fard kifayah (as is the case with offensive jihad) and it takes place during the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, it is better than any voluntary deed that the slave could ever do.

So take advantage – O Muslims – of these tremendous days, for by Allah they are priceless. Rush to perform good deeds and hasten before the onset of death, for today there is opportunity to perform deeds and no accountability, but tomorrow there is accountability and no opportunity to perform deeds.

O Allah, make us diligent in performing good deeds in the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah, and aid us in remembering You, being grateful to You, and worshiping You in the best of manners.

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In his famous mu’allaqah poem, the Jahili poet ‘Amr Ibn Kulthum said, “And we had many glorious and long days, we defied the king therein, lest we obey.” The word he used for “we obey” is “nadin,” from the well-known but oft-misunderstood root word “din.” Usually translated as “religion,” and indeed it is that, one of the basic meanings of din is obedience, and is especially used – as in the above verse of poetry – in reference to the authority and rule of a king. Allah said in the story of Yusuf , “Thus We plotted for Yusuf. He would not take his brother by the din of the king” (Yusuf 76), meaning, “by the rule and authority of the king,” or as at-Tabari commented, “Yusuf would not take his brother by the rule, judgment, or obedi-ence of the king of Egypt.” He then mentioned the various statements of the Salaf suggesting that “din” in this ayah means sultan (authority), qada (judgment), and hukm (rule), ending his commentary by saying, “And the basis of din is obedience.”

As for our King – the King of mankind, the King of the Day of Recompense, the True King – then we have entered into His din and must obey His rule wholeheartedly, and He said, “And fight them until there is no fitnah and the din is for Allah. But if they cease, then there is no aggression except against the tyrants” (Al-Baqarah 193). So the command of Allah – to which obedience is due as a religious duty – is to fight until there is no fitnah, i.e. evident shirk in the obedience of Allah, and until no manifest authority

is given to any rule except to that of the True King. His saying, “if they cease,” means that if they submit or surrender, then they are to be left alone. This can either be in the form of repentance to Allah and abid-ing by His worship alone or by the paying of jizyah while remaining upon subjugated kufr, just as Allah said, regarding the command of killing the mushrikin in general, “Then if they repent, establish the prayer, and pay the zakah, then leave them alone” (At-Tawbah 5), and He said that the People of the Book – those who “do not adhere to the true din” – should specifically be fought “until they pay the jizyah willingly, while they are humiliated” (At-Tawbah 29).

And “there is no aggression except against the ty-rants” means those who did not submit nor surrender, either through repentance or dhimmah, the covenant of jizyah. Thus, anyone who is neither a Muslim nor a dhimmi kafir (while still a tyrant against himself, deserving both hatred and humiliation) is a hostile ty-rant deserving aggression. This is because shirk itself is dhulm (tyranny), as Allah said, “And when Luqman said to his son, admonishing him, ‘O my son, do not commit shirk with Allah. Verily shirk is a great tyran-ny’” (Luqman 13). And although the people of dhim-mah are mushrikin from the People of the Book, their shirk is subjugated and humiliated under the Shari’ah of Allah enforced upon them.

So the duty to fight the tyrants – the mushrikin – is

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clear and established. But Allah did not only command the “fighting” of disbelievers, as if to say He only wants us to conduct frontline operations against them. Rather, He has also ordered that they be slain wherever they may be – on or off the battlefield. He said, “So when the sacred months have passed, then kill the mushrikin wherever you find them and take them, surround them, and wait for them at every outpost” (At-Tawbah 5). All of this becomes all the more apparent for those who have realized that the blood of a kafir is cheap, filthy, and permissible to shed.

Islam is the religion of sound principles providing the perfect foundations upon which the solid structures of justice and glory are built. One of these great principles is that all people must be fought until they accept Islam or come under a shar’i covenant. This principle establishes the prohibition of shedding Muslim and covenant-bound kafir blood as well as the permissibility of shedding the blood of all other kuffar. The Prophet said, “I have been ordered to fight mankind until they say that there is no god except Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah, and they estab-lish the prayer and pay the zakah. Whoever does so, then his blood and wealth are safe from me except for a law-ful reason” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar), and he said, addressing the Muslims, “For verily your blood, wealth, and honor are haram to each other” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from Abu Bakrah). And regarding the dhimmi – the one who has a covenant with the Muslims –the Prophet said, “Whoever kills a person of covenant shall not smell the fragrance of Jannah, which can be found for a distance of forty years” (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim from ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr). These narrations offer an explanation of the ayah, “And do not kill a soul which Allah has forbidden except for a lawful reason” (Al-An’am 151), about which at-Tabari said, “The soul which Allah has forbidden is the soul of a believer or a person of covenant, and His saying, ‘except for a lawful reason,’ means that which permits such a soul to be killed, as in capital punishment for murder, or stoning an adulterer to death, or killing someone for apostasy.”

As for all others – meaning all disbelievers who have no covenant – then their blood has not been given the sanctity of prohibition, but remains under the command to fight mankind, so their blood remains halal. Shedding the blood of a non-dhimmi kafir is not sinful, but is rather reward-ed with Jannah. Allah’s Messenger said, “A kafir and his killer will never be gathered together in the Fire” (Reported by Muslim from Abu Hurayrah). Furthermore, his words, “I have been ordered to fight mankind,” leave no room for debate, as mankind includes every person in the world, and the only ones excluded from this order to fight are those who submit or surrender to the rule of Islam, as was pre-viously mentioned. This alone befits a messenger who was sent to all people, as Allah said, “Say, ‘O mankind, verily I am the Messenger of Allah sent to all of you’” (Al-A’raf 158), and the Prophet said, “Other prophets were sent to their people alone, but I was sent to all of mankind” (Re-ported by al-Bukhari from Jabir Ibn ‘Abdillah).

Lest someone think this is a strange, new opinion, it should be known that this is the stance of the Sahabah and the greatest scholars of the Ummah. This is reflected in the words of ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab who, during the life of the Prophet and without objection, said to Abu Jandal, en-couraging him to kill his father Suhayl Ibn ‘Amr, “Be pa-tient, Abu Jandal, for they are merely mushrikin, and their blood is nothing but (like) the blood of a dog” (Reported by Ahmad from al-Miswar Ibn Makhramah). Indeed, ‘Umar was correct, as the mushrikin are entirely impure, as Allah said, “O you who believe! The mushrikin are nothing but impure” (At-Tawbah 28).

This is also understood from the words of Anas Ibn Malik, who was asked, “O Abu Hamzah! What makes a slave’s (i.e. a person’s) blood and wealth haram?” He replied, “Whoever testifies that there is no god but Allah, faces our qiblah, prays our prayer, and eats what we slaughter, then he is a Muslim. He gets what a Muslim gets and is bound by what a Muslim is bound” (Reported by al-Bukhari from Maymum Ibn Siyah).

Ash-Shafi’i said, “And the kafir’s blood is not spared until he becomes a Muslim” (Al-Umm). In further explanation, he said, “Allah spared blood and restricted the taking of wealth, except for a lawful reason, through belief in Allah and in His Messenger or through a covenant given by the believers, based on the rule of Allah and His Messenger, to the People of the Book. And He allowed shedding the blood of mature men who refrain from belief and who do not have a covenant. Allah said, ‘So when the sacred months have passed, then kill the mushrikin wherever you find them and take them, surround them, and wait for them at every out-post’ (At-Tawbah 5)” (Al-Umm). Mentioning the excep-tion of killing women and children, he also said, “And the reason for the prohibition of shedding Muslim blood being different from the prohibition of shedding the kafir child’s and kafir woman’s blood is that they are not to be killed due to specific revelation restricting this killing [while the initial ruling allows shedding kafir blood in general]. And our opinion regarding this – and Allah knows best – is that the restriction exists so that they can become slaves, which is more beneficial than killing them, and killing them does not harm the enemy; so making them slaves is more opti-mal than killing them” (Al-Umm).

Al-Khattabi said, “The kafir’s blood is permissible because he has not yet uttered the word of tawhid; but if he were to say it, then his blood is spared and becomes prohibited” (A’lam al-Hadith).

Ibn Hazm, after mentioning the prohibition of target-ing women and children, said, “And it is permissible to kill anyone – other than those we mentioned above – of the mushrikin, both the combatant and non-combatant, the businessman and employee, the elderly man – whether or not he be a person of influence – the farmer, the bishop or priest or monk, the blind or crippled – no one is given exception” (Al-Muhalla).

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Ibn Qudamah mentioned the harbi (the kafir who is not under a covenant) and said, “Shedding his blood is per-missible without exception, just like swine” (Al-Mughni). He also said, “The kuffar asliyyin [those kuffar who are not murtaddin] shall have no protection in their own lands” (Al-Mughni).

Ibn Rushd said, “And the principle is that what makes wealth permissible to take is kufr, and that which protects it is Islam, just as the Prophet said, ‘Then if they said that, they have protected their blood and their wealth from me’” (Bidayat al-Mujtahid). While specifically mention-ing wealth, his words clearly point to the permissibility of bloodshed as is also in the evidence he quoted.

Al-Qurtubi, said, “If a Muslim meets a kafir who has no covenant, it is permissible for him to kill him.”

Abu Hanifah said, regarding a kafir who is killed, “There is no retaliation (against the killer) and the diyah (blood money) is not to be paid, because the blood of the kafir is permissible (to shed) unless it is established that he has a covenant or is under dhimmah” (Al-Hawi al-Kabir). Like-wise, the famous Hanafi scholar al-Kashani said, “The prin-ciple is that it is permissible to kill anyone from amongst the people who are at war (with the Muslims), whether they fight or do not fight. But it is not permissible to kill anyone who is not from the people who are at war [meaning those with a valid covenant], unless they fight or offer strategic support, obedience, instigation, or otherwise. So the priest and wandering ascetic who mix with the people are to be killed, as are those who have fits of insanity, and the deaf

and mute, and the one with a severed hand or foot, even if they did not fight. This is because they are from the same people who are at war [with the Muslims]” (Badai’ as-Sa-nai’).

None of this should be surprising to any Muslim who has studied his religion, as this matter of a kafir’s blood being halal to shed is something upon which scholars have record-ed consensus. At-Tabari said, “They [the scholars of Islam] have agreed that even if a mushrik were to wear the bark of all the trees of the Haram [in Makkah] around his neck and on his arms, that would not grant him safety from being killed unless the Muslims gave him a covenant of dhimmah or security.”

Muslims currently living in Dar al-Kufr must be remind-ed that the blood of the disbelievers is halal, and killing them is a form of worship to Allah, the Lord, King, and God of mankind. This includes the businessman riding to work in a taxicab, the young adults (post-pubescent “chil-dren”) engaged in sports activities in the park, and the old man waiting in line to buy a sandwich. Indeed, even the blood of the kafir street vendor selling flowers to those pass-ing by is halal to shed – and striking terror into the hearts of all disbelievers is a Muslim’s duty. There is no shar’i re-quirement to target soldiers and policemen nor judges and politicians, but all kuffar who are not under the covenant of dhimmah are fair game. How can the disbelievers ever dream of safety and security while Muslims suffer anywhere in the world and while the rule of Allah is mockingly re-placed by manmade monstrosities of democracy?

. . . E v e n t h e b l o o d o f a m e r r y C r u s a d e r c i t i z e n s e l l i n g f l o w e r s t o p a s s e r s b y

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